George Saunders Quotes

The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval.

Any deviation is looked upon as a perversion, is feared, and is usually a target of hatred and prejudice.

It's difficult to not be able to just be yourself without criticism in any position, whether you're in high school, college, or this industry.

I would walk into a room, and people would be like, 'Hide the children. Here comes the guy with AIDS.' That's very demeaning, and it really hurts your spirit.

The trouble is that people are all too ready to jump to conclusions about anybody who they think looks a bit strange. They think you must be mentally subnormal.

I used to think that people just hate vegans; I have since discovered that everybody hates anyone who abstains from anything.

People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.

In England you're skewered on the altar of pop culture if you become pretentious.

It's hard to be wrongfully accused, but it's worse when the people looking down on you are clods who have never read a book or traveled more than twenty miles from the place they were born.

Only if you were lucky to be born in the right class, the one Donald Trump was born in, then of course you have a beautiful view of the world. You find that everybody else is an imbecile, because he doesn't think like you, he doesn't dress like you, he doesn't have the same girl as you, etc. But I call that ignorance.

Players do not come out of the closet because they are afraid. We have to appear hard and strong, but we are afraid of what people will say about us. Of course, I have nothing against anyone. I respect everybody.

People were so cruel because of the way I existed.

I meet people who are so sniffy about daytime TV.

What hurts is not being homosexual, but they tell it in your face as if you were a plague.

There can be nothing more abominable than religion.

The vast majority of people are unthinking prejudice machines.

Freaks, they are very prejudiced. You have to have your hair long and talk in a certain way in order to be with them. In order to be the other way you have to have your hair short and wear ties.

Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.

Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand... prejudice, fear and ignorance walk hand-in-hand.

The neoconservatives are a small circle, and they're all sort of holding hands as they develop their policy, and outsiders aren't allowed. If you agree with the guys on the inside, you're a genius. If you disagree, you're a traitor, a pariah, you're an apostate, and you're not allowed in.

People who are labeled as disrespectful do not get the same opportunities afforded to those who are labeled as respectful.

The seeds of destruction lie in the definition of "chosen-ness" and can easily blossom into bigotry. It's not inevitable but it needs constant care to avoid.

Fear is isolating for those that fear. And I have come to believe that fear is a cruelty to those who are feared.

I feel today's society is so judgmental.